Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The gospel of Jesus Christ is totally different than any other religion that has ever existed on earth. In fact, all other religions are in some way counterfeits of the original religion revealed by the one true God. The counterfeits all have one common denominator principle: you win the favor of God (or of the gods) by your works, by your obedience, by the good things that you do or that you sacrifice.
In contrast, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a revelation of what God has done and is doing for us, and worship therefore consists of simply beholding, contemplating, understanding, appreciating the character of this one true God. "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," God says (Isa. 45:22). The serpent is lifted up on a pole so that the stricken Israelites could simply look and be healed (Num. 21:9). John says, "Behold, what manner of love (agape) the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1).
People criticize such a religion--you just look and you're saved?! That's silly! But yes, that's indeed what the Bible teaches. Paul says that just by looking, sinners are changed, converted: "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory ... by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18). You can imagine how Satan hates such a religion as that!
But what is it that we are to look at, to behold? The answer is: the cross of Christ. Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14, 15). There is where the agape is revealed for us to "behold." Paul says it is our privilege to "comprehend" the amazing dimensions of that agape (Eph. 3:14-21).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 6, 1998.
Copyright © 2014 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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